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Iamblichus: On the Mysteries · 77 of 218 · tr. Thomas Taylor

Chapter XXVIII-b

The variety, however, of such like energies, and the composition of a multitude of material powers, are not only entirely separated from divine fabrication, but also from natural production. For nature produces her proper works collectively, and at once, and accomplishes all things by simple and incomposite energies. Hence it remains that a commixture of this kind, about the last and manifest celestial effluxion, and about the things which are moved by a celestial nature, is artificial.
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Themes
Body As Obstacleanthropology

The material body viewed as a prison, tomb, or source of error that hinders spiritual knowledge and return.

The passage contrasts divine fabrication with material powers, implying the lower realm hinders true divine production.

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Cosmic Dualismtheology

Ontological opposition between two primal principles (light/darkness, truth/lie, spirit/matter) as the fundamental structure of reality.

The text establishes a clear ontological opposition between divine fabrication and artificial material commixture.

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Divine Simplicitytheology

The doctrine that God has no parts, divisions, or composite attributes; pure undivided being.

The passage centrally defines nature's accomplishment through 'simple and incomposite energies' as opposed to composite material powers.

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Evil As Privationtheology

Augustinian and Plotinian doctrine that evil has no positive being of its own but is a lack, distortion, or absence of the good — denying ontological dualism while preserving moral seriousness.

Artificial commixture is described as a separation from divine fabrication and natural production, implying a deficiency or distortion of the good.

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Monadcosmology

The absolutely simple, undivided first principle from which all multiplicity and existence flows.

The reference to a 'simple and incomposite energies' suggests a singular, undivided source of creation distinct from composite material powers.

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Unity Of Beingtheology

The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim.

The description of nature accomplishing all things collectively implies an underlying unity in the cosmic order.

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